Take over a conversation
Manage availability, claim or reassign a handoff, reply as a person, and resolve or reopen support work.
Set availability
Use the dashboard availability control to set your support state to Online or Away. When a visitor asks for a person, the agent connects them and writes a short confirmation that matches your current availability: it tells them a teammate is joining shortly when you are online, or that their message has been passed along when you are away. There is no handoff message to write — the agent handles the wording for you.
Open Needs agent
Filter Inbox by Needs agent. Open the conversation and review the visitor's request before claiming it.
Assign it
Select Assign to me, or choose an eligible teammate from Conversation details. Assignment prevents teammates from unknowingly handling the same chat. Only teammates who still have reply access are listed.
Reply
Send a message or supported attachment. Type / at the start of an empty reply to choose a Quick Reply with the keyboard. Select the question-mark button to insert an Instant Answer from your saved knowledge.
Release or resolve
Choose Release conversation to return control to AI. Select Resolve when the visitor's current issue is complete. The history remains available under Resolved.
A resolved conversation can be reopened when follow-up is necessary. Manual reopening assigns it to you. A new visitor message reopens it automatically under AI handling across the widget, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Slack. Use a ticket when the issue needs work beyond the live chat.
When a visitor asks for a person, the conversation appears under Needs agent immediately, but the AI keeps answering while the visitor waits. Automated replies stop only after a teammate is assigned. This applies to the widget and connected chat channels, including follow-up questions and exact saved answers. Releasing the conversation returns new messages to AI handling.
Team members need conversations.view to see chats and conversations.reply to take over and reply.
If another teammate resolves or reassigns the conversation while you are typing, Fetchply keeps your draft but disables sending. Reopen the conversation or ask the new assignee to release it; your text is restored when you can reply again.
Opening an unread conversation marks its visible messages as read immediately. New messages that arrive while that conversation remains open are also treated as read. Fetchply keeps the timeline in sent order, including messages recovered after a brief reconnect.
The timeline also shows date separators, resolution and reopen events, automated actions, and storefront pages the customer viewed. The header badge shows whether AI is replying or stopped. For WhatsApp, it also shows the remaining 24-hour free-form reply window.
Customer details and email conversations
Use Conversation details to add or update the customer's name, email, and phone number. You can add searchable tags, include teammates as participants, or change the owner. These changes stay with the conversation.
The actions menu next to Resolve in the conversation header holds the email options for the conversation:
- Email chat transcript sends the full conversation history to the customer. Confirm the customer email, adjust the suggested subject if needed, and send.
- Set email subject chooses the subject used whenever a reply is emailed to this customer, including replies sent while they are offline. This replaces the subject box that used to sit above the message box, so the subject stays consistent across every emailed reply.
Select the plus button in the inbox list to start a conversation from a customer email address. For an existing widget conversation, Fetchply sends an agent reply in chat while the customer is online. If the customer is offline and an email is available, the reply is sent by email and includes recent conversation history so the customer has the context that led to it. To keep the email readable, it shows only the last 10 messages, and an unusually long single message is shortened. If no email is available, choose either to add one or send in chat only.
Email delivery supports text replies. If the reply contains an attachment, remove it before choosing email or send it in chat instead. A chat-only reply remains in the conversation and is not emailed.
Troubleshooting
Release conversation does not change the chat
If Fetchply cannot release the conversation, an error appears below the message box. Retry the action once. If a teammate changed the conversation at the same time, refresh the inbox to load its latest state before trying again.
Reassignment says the teammate is no longer eligible
The teammate's access changed after the list loaded. Retry from Conversation details and select a teammate who is still shown. If nobody is available, leave the conversation unassigned or contact the workspace owner.
The visitor still receives AI replies after requesting a person
This is expected while the conversation is waiting under Needs agent. Select Assign to me, or assign an eligible teammate, to stop automated replies and route new visitor messages only to the assigned teammate. If the conversation was released, assign it again before replying as a person.
Resolve or reopen reports that the conversation changed
Another teammate completed an action first. Fetchply keeps the latest server state and refreshes the active list. Review the new state before trying again; repeated clicks do not create duplicate reopen events.
I can read but cannot reply
You may have view-only access, the conversation may be resolved, or it may belong to another teammate. Ask the workspace owner for reply access or ask the current assignee to release or reassign the conversation. Your unsent draft remains available while the conversation stays selected.
A reply fails after I press Send
Fetchply keeps the message in the reply box and shows the reason below it. Retry once after confirming your internet connection. If the conversation was closed or reassigned, refresh the inbox and follow the action shown. If the message still cannot be sent, give the workspace owner the time of the failure so they can investigate it without losing your draft.
The inbox shows Syncing
Syncing can appear briefly while live updates reconnect. Conversations continue to refresh automatically during this time. If it remains visible, keep the dashboard tab open, confirm your internet connection, and refresh the page. You can continue reading and replying while Fetchply reconnects.
Quick Replies do not open when I type slash
Place the cursor in an empty reply box, then type /. Use the arrow keys to move, Enter to choose, and Escape to close. If there are no saved replies, create one from the Quick Replies menu first.
The customer is offline and email cannot be sent
Confirm that the email address in Conversation details is correct. If Fetchply reports that email delivery is unavailable, choose Send in chat only to keep the reply in the conversation, then ask the workspace owner to check email delivery before retrying.
A WhatsApp reply is blocked
The customer's 24-hour free-form reply window has closed. Use an approved WhatsApp template or wait for the customer to send a new message. The countdown in the conversation header updates automatically.
The transcript email cannot be sent
Add a valid customer email, make sure the conversation contains at least one message, and retry. You can edit the suggested subject before sending. An empty conversation cannot produce a transcript.
An emailed reply to an offline customer does not show the whole conversation
This is expected for long conversations. To keep the email readable and reliable to send, an emailed reply includes only the last 10 messages, and an unusually long single message is shortened with a trailing ellipsis. The customer still receives your full reply and enough recent context to follow it. If you need to send the complete history, use Email chat transcript from the actions menu instead.